Fiction for young adults

Long-established children’s book magazine, ‘Books for Keeps’, interviews Sam Youd: ‘I think the successful children’s books are those which appeal to something at a deeper level which the child doesn’t really quite work out. Now in “The White Mountains”, the whole thing is that at puberty people are brainwashed. The whole future of mankind rests in the hands of the young, the age group for which I’m writing. I think that kids at that age – around 12 or 13 – probably do look at the adults around them resentfully and think of them as hidebound and prejudiced. It’s important for children to have stories which put them in the driving seat.’

In 1971, two years after its publication, John Christopher published an article in the children’s magazine ‘Puffin Post’ to explain his reasons for writing the classic sci-fi adventure story of boys on the moon.

In June 2017, the New Yorker published a piece by David Cantwell which discusses the work of John Christopher/Sam Youd, with particular reference to the Tripods trilogy. As David points out: ‘Rereading the book today, though, what’s most striking is its ultimate lesson. At the end of the series, after our young heroes have defeated the Tripod rulers, Will notices troubling political developments: renewed tribalism, authoritarianism, and nationalism among some members of the resistance. Since the Presidential election last November, many people have drawn on dystopian fiction … to explain our predicament. The implication sometimes seems to be that we can restore democracy by rising up to defeat our newly elected leader … The Tripods Trilogy makes the case that sustaining democracy is not so simple.’

In ‘Fearful Associations in John Christopher’s Middle-Grade Science Fiction’, the LA Review of Books discusses two of John Christopher’s YA novels, ‘The Guardians’ and ‘The Lotus Caves’. How does a young boy maintain a sense of self, Jens Lloyd asks, while associating with others? How does he navigate between the poles of assimilation and individuality? When should individualism be feared? When should assimilation be welcomed? ‘If assimilation entails cohabitation with a benevolent interstellar vegetable,’ he concludes, ‘then I am, at least, going to consider my options.’

Ethan Alter, writer for Yahoo TV, focuses on a piece of previously unadapted material ‘we’d love to see become a TV series’ – John Christopher’s ‘The Sword of the Spirits’ trilogy – with Rian Johnson directing, he suggests, and Bruce Willis as the Prince’s father!

Noah Berlatsky of Wired Magazine compares John Christopher’s Tripods with the Harry Potter books and The Hunger Games. He concludes: ‘If I ever had to be a hero, I’m pretty sure I’d be more like Will than like Harry or Ender or Katniss — which is to say, I’d be clumsy, impatient, selfish, whiny, and generally bad at it. More like Will, who screws up and regrets it but never actually changes; Will who has no destiny, but does what he can to help out the people who do.’

Twenty years on, sci-fi and fantasy writer Jo Walton re-visits John Christopher’s ‘Prince in Waiting’ trilogy which ‘I read first when I was ten at most, and which I read a million times before I was fifteen’. ‘I was expecting the suck fairy to have been at them,’ she says, ‘specifically, I wasn’t expecting them to have the depth and subtlety that I remembered … However, I was pleasantly surprised. These really are good books.’